Kevin Harvick suggests 'nuclear meltdown' for NASCAR if Corey Heim, Connor Zilisch fail to win championships

As NASCAR’s championship weekend approaches, Kevin Harvick isn’t mincing words about how dominant Corey Heim and Connor Zilisch have been. He believes there will be seismic implications if either fails to close out their respective title runs.

Between the Truck and Xfinity Series, Heim and Zilisch have combined for an astounding 21 victories this season — 11 for Heim and 10 for Zilisch. Their consistency, Harvick argued, has been so overwhelming that it would further expose serious flaws in NASCAR’s playoff format if they don’t leave Phoenix with championships.

“Here’s what I think is interesting,” Harvick said on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. “When you look at Corey Heim’s stats compared to everybody else — if he doesn’t win this championship, it’s going to be a nuclear meltdown, if they don’t change the points to the correct way at the end of the year. It shouldn’t even be a question of who the champion is in the Truck Series. It shouldn’t be a question of who the champion is in the Xfinity Series.

“If Connor Zilisch and Corey Heim don’t win these championships, it’s exactly why we don’t need the system we have. It’s embarrassing.”

Continuing, the FOX Sports analyst has been a longtime critic of NASCAR’s playoff system since his Hall of Fame career came to an end. His argument centers on how a full season of excellence can be erased by one bad race or fluke event. For him, that kind of volatility undermines what a championship should represent.

“The right change is to make as many points matter as possible for as long as possible,” Harvick added. “My opinion doesn’t really matter to the committee. It’s not going to be made by the masses, as far as how the point system is. It’s just going to be laid out. I think that my biggest thing is if we’re going to have a playoff, you better make the points matter as much as possible or these people are going to eat you up.”

Harvick didn’t stop there either. He warned that a Heim or Zilisch loss would be nothing short of humiliating for NASCAR’s credibility: “Having the biggest sample size that you can in those playoffs for the points, you better have that,” he said. “Because if those two guys don’t win the championship, it’s an embarrassment.

“Corey Heim has a hundred more points than the next guy. … I can tell you, if Tyler Ankrum wins the championship and Corey Heim doesn’t, it’s embarrassing to the Truck Series.”

For Harvick, Phoenix isn’t just the finale. It’s a test of the system itself. If Heim or Zilisch fall short, he believes the fallout will be a “nuclear meltdown” that reignites NASCAR’s biggest debate. At least change seems to be on the horizon either way.